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WLP037 Yorkshire Square Ale Yeast

Seasonal Availability: Jan - Feb

This yeast produces a beer that is malty, but well-balanced. Expect flavors that are toasty with malt-driven esters. Highly flocculent and good choice for English pale ales, English brown ales, and mild ales.

“Tis a Fine Belgian Pale, but Tis No Bitter...”

Brewed what was supposed to be a Special Bitter with 95% Halcyon malt and a touch of British 55L crystal. I pitched a 1L starter of this yeast and fermented at 68F. Exceptionally phenolic and very apple/over-ripe pear ester dominate. The beer turned out way more like a Belgian Pale than a bitter. It also didn't flocculate very well at all. I won't be using this strain again... except if I want to brew another Belgian beer maybe....

“Excellent 'Landlord' yeast”

By:Allan | Date:Dec., 30th 2014 | Beer(s) Brewed: Bitter, porter

I've made a bit of a hit brewing a slightly more hoppy TT Landlord clone with this yeast, the only yeast to use for Yorkshire beer in my view. The yeast behaves a little differently to the more well known English yeasts, but learning to handle different yeasts is part of being a real brewer. I also like it in Porter. Now if only I can also get close to Black Sheep...

“Odd and unpleasant”

By:816guy | Date:Jan., 13th 2014 | Beer(s) Brewed: Oatmeal Stout

I won't be using this again. WLP037 produces a very dry, nutty, odd-smelling beer that has light fruity ester character and an unpleasant chalky / mineraly finish. With a mash temp of 154F, using 5% jaggery sugar, the apparent attenuation was 81% on a 1.054 SG. The dark malt character is insanely pronounced, to the point of being excessive and bizarre. The beer finishes with a very odd texture.

My recipe was an oatmeal stout. It ended up more like a brown porter with the dryness and pronounced dark malt.

“Makes a Superb Brown Ale!”

Absolutely *love* this yeast. Makes a delicious malty brown ale with a pleasantly dry finish. The recipe I use has a touch of smoked malt, and it just plays wonderfully. Very subtle esters give a clean profile without being boring. Man, do I wish this yeast was available year round!

“Vigorous top fermenter ...”

Made OG 1.049 Brown ale. Used 2 liter starter for 12 gallons. Vigorous top fermenter at 69 degrees F. Great tasting beer with lot of similarities to Sam Smith's.

“... allow for ample headspace ...”

By: Jack P. | Date:Nov., 20th 2012 | Beer(s) Brewed: Porter

Very vigorous top fermenter. I split a 10 gallon batch into two carboys, five gallons in a 6 gal and five gallons in a 6.5 gal. The 6 gal carboy overflowed considerably. The 6.5 gal just barely contained the krausen. Consequently, the overflowed half finished much higher (1.017 vs 1.013 in the 6.5 gal) because I lost a lot of healthy yeast off the top. Definitely allow for ample headspace with this one. Otherwise, a great yeast, great malt character, and big unique esters.

“(Not such a) short summary”

Short summary: if you want a truly fine Nut Brown Ale, this is one of the two best yeasts I've found (the other being WLP-007) for a Nut Brown ale. But it WILL need a bit of aging (see below). When I brewed this one, while it was in the fermenter, I thought I smelled some "bad" smells (medicinal, or close to it). When I sampled it (from the hydrometer tube) at kegging, I tasted what I'd smelled, but by that point, had already read online that this yeast will initially produce this aroma/flavor, but with a bit of age (5 days in the case of my nut brown), it fades into the background and becomes a flavor contributor, instead of a detriment. And that is EXACTLY what it did. This nut brown has a combination of flavors from the grain (which this yeast seems to really emphasize), the yeast (a LOT of complex esters with flavors I don't even KNOW how to describe, including a fantastic nutty character), and hops to balance it all out. But, based on previous brews, in my opinion, the 037 is critical in this balance, as its flavors really pull everything else together. I am now debating on using this yeast for my oatmeal stout, which has ALWAYS been done with Brewtek CL-170. Ahhh, decisions, decisions.... :-) Very nice yeast, but remember, patience! Oh, one other thing. HIGHLY flocculent. When this yeast stops (and drops out), it stops about the same way a car does when it hits a 200 ton concrete wall. It started up (6 gallons with a 300mL starter, started from slant-->10mL-->300mL) in roughly 12 hours from pitching the yeast, and ran at full speed until it finished, at which point it stopped cold and flocculated out literally overnight. Wonderful yeast....

“Year-round please!”

I'm in love with this yeast. It has taken my brown ale to the next level. I wish this yeast was available year round!

“Quality English style ales on tap”

By:BigB | Date:Nov., 20th 2012 | Beer(s) Brewed: Oatmeal Stout

WOW! What a fantastic yeast! This one should be in the regular line up. I cannot think of a better yeast for quality English style ales. In my case, I was trying to get a yeast that would help me replicate a Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout... It was PERFECT! I just wish the yeast was available more often than 2 months out of the year.

“Super dry ... ”

I got 88.5% attenuation with this yeast while brewing an ESB. OG: 1.061 FG: 1.007. Super dry, almost a little too dry for the style. Wasn't expecting that. Also brewed an Irish Red Ale with 99.2% attenuation. OG: 1.053 FG: 1.004. Again, almost to dry for the style. I must have got a super vial or something. No esters, pretty clean, almost a little medicinal. I split a 10G batch up one with WLP037 and WLP004. WLP004 has no off flavors. Don't know if I'd use it again.